alan simpson painting a bleak picture behind the scenes of the fiscal cliff negotiations. good morning. this is "way too early." thanks for being up with us this morning. we have a lot to get to on this thursday, december 6. >> including president obama actually making his appeal to business leaders on his tax plan. he's now reaching out following a very tough election campaign. >> and overseas, protests get violent in egypt where the once stable nation appears to be on the verge of crisis. first, let's get to the news live at 5:30 here at 30 rock in new york city. we begin with 25 days to go until the year end fiscal cliff deadline for the first time in days president obama and speaker boehner spoke on the phone yesterday. both men agreeing not to publicly characterize how the conversation went. but the stalemate in negotiations entered bold new territory yesterday with treasury secretary tim geithner suggesting the white house is ready to go off the cliff if republicans refuse to raise taxes on the top 2%. >> if republicans do not agree to that, is the administration pre